The changing character of antisemitism and the changing motivations behind it have made it notoriously difficult to define and categorize, although today we have the benefit of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which recognizes the continuities between the “old antisemitism” and “contemporary antisemitism” in the form of certain, although not all, criticism of Israel.

Stalinism undoubtedly robbed the Uzbek people and the world of an incredible talent at a young age—Cho’lpon was most likely 41 when Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD, took his life—but it is because of Stalinism and Cho’lpon’s erasure from Soviet Uzbek life that the author is so interesting and enigmatic a figure today. The absence of information about his life and his oeuvre echoes across history and continues to affect how Uzbek audiences relate to the author. This absence provides opportunities for individuals to offer differentiated and heterogenous interpretations of the author’s biography, his art, and consequently, Uzbekistan’s past, present, and future.

Amid the justifiable furor that erupted over the obscene anti-Semitic cartoon that recently appeared in the international New York Times, its editors remained silent for nearly a week. A solitary voice of anger surfaced in the newspaper. Aptly labeling the cartoon “a textbook illustration” of anti-Semitism, Times columnist Bret Stephens lacerated his newspaper for publishing a depiction of Prime Minster Netanyahu as a dog (with a Star of David hanging from its collar), leading a blind President Trump wearing a kipa. The cartoon, Stephens wrote furiously, “might have been published in the pages of Der Strumer.”

Recently, we have learned that, within the new Silk Road-style trade network—the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—Italy has become the first G7 country to back that original Chinese scheme that few countries approve of. In fact, Italy's allies—Europe and the United States—are annoyed by Rome's move. The BRI is no doubt an ambitious project that envisages Chinese investment in a network of infrastructure projects connecting Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Is China using the project to embolden its political and strategic clout?